SWright

I think I will go buy some then. I will also make a thread in the build section, just in-case I get stuck. Also I know about the flooding effecting prices. Well, my local shops prices haven't gone up but they are restricting the amount you can buy. I will just get two and send my girlfriend in after to get two more.

I would have enough parts, the only thing I lack is spare hard drives.

Thanks for the links, they'll help me a lot. Right now I am living with my parents, but I am in work. So I don't have much money going out on bills etc. I just pay internet/electric that's about it. So I can save money easily, not sure if I should build a powerful server in-case I want to play around with it in the near future. Or just build one that will be good enough.

I love to learn, and I looked at your tutorial it looks like it would be fun to set up. But, maybe next time.

After reading the posts from Johnm/prostuff1 I think it's obviously the best way forward.

Thanks for the answer, I will take a look at the threads you suggested.

I'm not saying running it all the time is impossible. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can right now, so I can see what is needed.

I'm 19 and I really enjoy anything to do with PCs. I have recently came across the joys of home servers/network and the benefits. But I have no idea where to start is there any books you could recommend? I have been reading "Raj's Prototype Designs" thread. I think I am going to try to replicate something like the "22 Drive Beast (rackmount)" I don't see the point in doing it cheap if I am serious about it. I want the best I can. I know there will be better than this, but this is an easy guideline for me to follow. The main reasons I want a server for are: - Sharing files over my home computers/TV/PS3 (Movies, Music & Pictures) - Torrents - General Storage of all my movies - Storage of games - Something like this would also be perfect (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3024.msg36276#msg36276) I'm very new to this, though I would love to become an active/experienced member of the community. I guess trial and error is a good way to learn, but if I am going to do an expensive build first, I would rather not do the usual trial and error haha. I don't want it on 24/7 either, I see some people do keep them on.